Abstract
M.Ed.
Eleven official languages are distinguished in South Africa. Although multilingualism is
characteristic of the South African society, it is still a relatively new phenomenon in South
African public schools. For the teacher it offers a multilingual classroom - a great challenge
on account of the unfamiliar phenomenon.
Many demands are made on the teacher's skills in order to accompany pupils whose home
language may differ from the medium of education. Most teachers do not, however,
possess the necessary skills and they apply a "hit-and-miss" method in order to accompany
these pupils adequately. This presents a special challenge, particularly to the grade one
teacher, since grade one pupils are expected to express their needs in words.
The grade one teacher is therefore self-reliant in accompanying these pupils without
receiving any educational accompaniment herself. Hence the teacher finds herself in an educational situation which is dangerously unfamiliar. From the perspective of educational
psychology, this educational situation is regarded as hampering to both the child and the
teacher. The educational psychologist consequently faces a special challenge to intervene
in an effort to ensure that the accompanying process between teacher and pupils goes
smoothly.
This study aims to explore and describe how the grade one teacher experiences
multilingualism and to establish guidelines for the educational psychologist for the
accompaniment of grade one teachers in multilingual classrooms.
An explorative, descriptive, contextual and qualitative study was carried out with a view
p obtain insight and understanding in respect of the grade one teacher and how she
experiences multilingualism. The phenomenological interviewing method was used to
collect data. The interviews were audiotaped and then transcribed. The sample population
consisted of four grade one teachers who were specifically selected for the purpose of the
study. The data were processed according to Tesch's method and the services of an
independent coder were obtained.
The results of the interviews are organised in main categories. These categories are: :
i) multilingualism as straneous for the teacher; ii) multilingualism hinders the effective flow
of activities in the classroom; and iii) a creative problem solving attitude.
Guidelines for the accompaniment of teachers in a multilingual grade one class by the
educational psychology are discussed according to the above three categories. This
classification was interdependent because, when one aspects is dealt with, another is
essentially affected. For this reason, the educational psychologist's accompaniment of the
grade one teacher should follow a holistic approach which addresses all three aspects.
Finally, it is clear that multilingualism in the grade one class has many facets. In general,
it appears that the grade one teacher experiences many constraints and that the educational
psychologist can provide meaningful accompaniment.